Driver caused smash on A77

Nov 28 2007 By Lisa Boyle, Ayrshire Post

A DRIVER caused chaos on a killer road – five minutes after her car insurance expired.

Helen Lafferty joined the A77 from the Ladykirk and Underwood junction on August 18 last year.

But she failed to see two cars travelling along the 70mph carriageway toward her as she pulled out.

Lafferty didn’t have time to cross the southbound carriageway onto the northbound before a car carrying three people smashed into her.

Such was the force of the collision that the travelling car flipped and landed on its roof on the opposite carriageway having crashed through the central reservation.

All three occupants, who had been heading home from work, required hospital treatment.

Two of them were so traumatised by their near death experience that they were unable to return to work for a considerable time.

Lafferty’s car did a 360 degree spin and another car travelling along the road landed in a grass verge after slamming on the breaks and swerving to avoid a crash.

Ayr Sheriff Court heard this week that although Lafferty, a 53-year-old shop owner from Airdrie, was lucky nobody was killed in the crash, it had proved expensive for her.

Lafferty’s defence lawyer told Sheriff Colin Miller that her insurance was due to be transferred from one vehicle to the one she had been driving five minutes before the collision.

But a glitch meant that the transfer hadn’t happened and Lafferty was effectively driving without insurance.

The lawyer added: “A car on the other side had flashed and she took it that she was clear to cross. Mrs Lafferty was going very, very slowly and it was not the case that she was trying to beat the traffic.”

Sheriff Colin Miller disqualified her from driving for six months and fined her £450.